This invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus provided with a recording head for ejecting an ink droplet in response to a print signal, and a detachable and attachable ink cartridge for supplying ink to this recording head, and particularly to an ink jet recording apparatus which fills ink in the recording head accurately in accordance with detachment and attachment of the ink cartridge.
An ink jet recording apparatus is so constructed that ink to be used in a recording head can be easily supplied from a cartridge.
Therefore, it is known that by changing a kind of ink, printing of high quality is performed also on the different kind of recording medium.
In case that the kind of ink is changed like this, it is necessary to prevent deterioration of print quality due to mixture with ink remaining in the recording head. To this end, as disclosed in JP-A-10-6527, a recording apparatus has been proposed in which the kind of ink stored in the ink cartridge is detected, and in case that the kind of ink is changed, amount of ink to be filled in the recording head and a wiping operation are changed when the ink cartridge is exchanged, to thereby reliably perform the subsequent print operation.
However, the detachment and attachment of the ink cartridge is performed not only in case that the kind of ink is changed but also when ink in the ink cartridge is consumed completely, when a user remounts the ink cartridge after the user erroneously detach the ink cartridge, when a user remounts the ink cartridge after the user re-fills ink in the detached cartridge. Namely, in the detachment and attachment of the ink cartridge, various modes exist.
In case that a new ink cartridge is mounted, even if the air enters the recording head at the time of detachment and attachment, since ink which has been fully degassed is supplied from the cartridge, air bubbles that have entered the recording head are resolved in the ink reliably and disappear. Therefore, printing can be performed following a simple method, that is, merely filling a small amount of ink in the recording head. However, in case that the same cartridge is remounted, a large amount of the air enters the ink cartridge in association with the detachment of the cartridge to decrease degassed rate of the ink. For this reason, the air bubbles in the recording head is difficult to be resolved into the ink and disappear. Further, since air that has entered an ink supply port of the cartridge enters the recording head, it is necessary to discharge a large amount of ink out of the system through the recording head in order to discharge this air.
As described above, the amount of ink to be filled in the recording head after the cartridge is mounted varies depending on the ink cartridge exchanging modes. Therefore, the user must fill an optimum amount of ink in the recording head through a cleaning instruction switch provided on a control panel of the recording apparatus in accordance with the ink cartridge exchanging mode, which causes an inexperienced user to make print of intended print quality impossible or causes waste of recording sheets and ink.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus which can automatically select the amount of ink to be filled in the recording head and fill the ink therein in accordance with the ink cartridge exchanging mode to thereby prevent print deterioration and waste of ink associated with the detachment and attachment of the ink cartridge(s).